Sunday misc.
Comic creator Michael Turner passed away Friday evening at the far too young age of 37. I realize I’ve been pretty critical of his work in the past, but I know he had his fans, and that he of course had family and friends who loved him, so my sincere condolences to all of them.
The Aspen Comics message board has posted addresses where you can send your own condolences, and places where you can make donations to Mr. Turner’s preferred charities.
- Over at WFMU’s Beware of the Blog, they’ve turned up some original master recordings of the background music for the ’60s Spider-Man cartoon, and it’s totally far out, man. You can read about it here and here, and pick up the accompanying hour-long podcast focusing on the music. It’s great stuff…give it a listen.
EDIT: Matthew points me in the direction of someone performing covers of the Spider-Man background music. The world is large enough to contain even this. Also, that artist makes reference to another band that had covered that background music previously, though that CD is out of print.
- Currently reading: Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw…700+ pages of comics, all centered around an excruciatingly detailed examination of the members of a family, interacting with each other and on their own. It’s tragic, gross, funny, uncomfortable and compelling…it’s certainly an immersive experience, and I’m only about 1/6th of the way in. I can only admire the amount of effort that went into the world-building for this story, and Shaw’s dedication to assembling 700 pages of comics to relate it in such detail.
- This man went to go see Steve Ditko for his birthday, and drew a comic strip about it. (via Mr. Dan Kelly)
- A couple of things about Final Crisis:
First, it’s selling just fine for us. In fact, when I checked our cycle sheet numbers, the first issue of Final Crisis just barely outsold the first issue of Secret Invasion at our shop. Now, granted, there may have been a few people buying one of each FC cover, which would inflate the numbers a bit…but we haven’t been experiencing too much of the “gotta buy both” reaction to this comic, so it isn’t that much of an impact. Even so, it’s hardly the blow-out people are trying to characterize it as, for whatever reason.
Second, I don’t get the complaints that Final Crisis is hard to understand. Prediction #3 appears to be a “hit,” I think.
Third, the complaints about continuity problems with the New Gods involvement…well, fair enough, and particularly noticeable in the midst of DC’s ongoing attempts at revitalizing/spring cleaning their shared universe continuity. But even that’s not a fatal problem…given how most people reacted to Death of the New Gods and Countdown, you’d figure they’d jump at the chance to ignore those series. And I have kind of a personal workaround anyway…given Morrison’s take on the New Gods and how powerful and godlike they really are, perhaps the cosmic impact of their actions leading up to, and including, their deaths affected the reality around them, causing universal “glitches” of sorts, resulting in repeated, or even contradictory, events to occur. Hey, why not? Works for me, anyway…if Marvel can have the Spidey/Mephisto/Mary Jane thing, then let me have this. (EDIT: Reno informs me that Grant Morrison had a similar suggestion in regards to dealing with the contradictory accounts.)
Fourth, I was watching some of the Justice League cartoon marathon on Boomerang Saturday night, and boy, I sure liked seeing the New Gods in animated form. Okay, that has nothing to do with Final Crisis, but I do like my New Gods cartoons.
- DC’s newest weekly Trinity remains strong in the sales department (we just sold out of #3, necessitating another reorder). I figure we’ll probably hit the “weekly fatigue” drop off point in a few weeks, with sales shooting back up again near the series’ end (which is what happened with previous weeklies 52 and Countdown).
- For being “Marked for Terror,” “Keith Partridge” sure is cheery:
“Rock’s first family hits a new high in adventure!”Ah, yes, “high” — very amusing.
